Idaho’s budget surplus swells to $1.4 billion
BOISE — Idaho’s budget surplus is up to $1.4 billion, state officials said Friday.
The state Division of Financial Management said it based the increase on a revised general fund revenue forecast it does every August for the current fiscal year to account for current economic conditions and law changes.
The agency said the surplus comes from a nearly $900 million ending balance for fiscal year 2021, which ended June 30, combined with another $513 million more than the forecast used by lawmakers to set the state’s budget last May for the current fiscal year, 2022, which ends next summer.
The agency also said revenue collections were nearly $40 million more than anticipated in July, the first month of the current fiscal year.
State officials said the $1.4 billion surplus could change up or down based on monthly revenue collections.
Budget setting for fiscal year 2021 occurred before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and state officials feared a big deficit.
But the state received billions of dollars in coronavirus rescue money, and many Idaho residents and businesses received pandemic help money. Federal money was also used to boost unemployment benefits.
Two Seattle cops who were at U.S. Capitol in January are fired
SEATTLE — Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz on Friday fired two police officers who authorities have said violated the law while attending events in Washington, D.C., during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Married officers Caitlin and Alexander Everett were fired because “they crossed the outdoor barriers established by the Capitol Police and were directly next to the Capitol Building,” Diaz said in a statement.
“It is beyond absurd to suggest that they did not know they were in an area where they should not be, amidst what was already a violent, criminal riot,” he said.
Diaz also called the officers’ presence at the Capitol that day as “an attack on our profession and on every officer across the country.”
Mike Solan, president of the Seattle Police union that represents officers, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment about the decision to fire them.
The officers, in a report released by Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability, said they stayed on grass 30 to 50 yards away from the capitol building and never saw any signs of a disturbance.
It’s not known if the officers are under criminal investigation by federal authorities for their actions.
The Everetts were among six Seattle officers in the nation’s capital for President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally.
The couple’s trip became public after Caitlin Everett posted a photo on Facebook of her and Alexander Everett at the demonstration. Four other officers later admitted they were also there but said they were not involved in the riot.
Friday marked the first time that the Everetts have been named. The police department has not named the other four officers.
The Washington Supreme Court announced Thursday that it would hear a lawsuit filed by the officers against people who filed public records requests seeking to disclose their identities.
Last month’s investigation by Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability found that the Everetts violated the law by trespassing at the U.S. Capitol while rioters stormed the building. The police discipline report stated that they also lied about their activities.
Despite the Everetts’ claim that they didn’t see a disturbance, FBI photographs showed them “directly next to” the Capitol building at about 2:30 p.m. — about 30 minutes after the demonstration had been declared a riot, the police accountability report said.
The officers told investigators that they had no idea that the event had turned violent, the report said.
But “nearby, and within your line of vision, numerous people were scaling a stone wall to the Capital steps, climbing the scaffolding, and crowds were surrounding the building,” the report added.
Diaz said the Everetts’ presence there was unacceptable: “More than a hundred officers sustained serious injuries – some career-ending – through outright assault,”
He added: “Hundreds more, across all agencies called to respond, bear the physical and emotional scars of that day. The participation of these two officers in that crowd is a stain on our department, and on the men and women who work every day to protect our community, serve those in need, and do so with compassion and dignity.”
Both officers came to Seattle after working with police departments in Texas.
The officers worked together at the Dallas Police Department as patrol officers before they were married, according to police reports released through a public records request.
Alexander Everett graduated from the University of North Texas with a Bachelor’s Degree in criminal justice in 2008 and worked in Dallas for four years before taking a job as an officer in Round Rock, Texas.
Caitlin Everett worked for the Dallas police for four years under her maiden name Caitlin Rochelle, the records said.
It was not immediately know if the Everetts have a lawyer. The attorneys representing them and the four other Seattle officers in the public records case withdrew from the case after the accountability office investigation was completed last month.
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This story has been updated to remove an erroneous reference to Alexander Everett having worked for the U.S. Air Marshals.
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Associated Press writer Jake Bleiberg in Dallas contributed to this report.
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Follow Martha Bellisle on Twitter @marthabellisle
Officials: Northwest heat may have killed 1; ER visits spike
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Extreme heat may be behind a death in Portland, Oregon, this week, and emergency room visits for heat-related illness rose sharply as sweltering temperatures gripped the normally temperate Pacific Northwest for the second time this summer, authorities said Friday.
The cause of the death Thursday won’t be known for several weeks. The news was nonetheless a blow for authorities who faced criticism when hundreds of people died in Oregon, Washington state and western Canada in a much hotter heat wave in late June that was fueled by climate change.
Temperatures that had been expected to soar to the triple digits in Portland for a third day Friday were somewhat suppressed by a thick veil of wildfire smoke, but the city still hit 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius). Seattle reached 88 F (31 C).
The National Weather Service said heat advisories and warnings were also in effect from the Midwest to the Northeast and mid-Atlantic through at least Friday.
Forecasters said hot weather and smoke from wildfires in the Northwest would pose a problem through the weekend. Lightning sparked two new fires in southern Oregon late Thursday that churned rapidly through vegetation sucked dry of moisture by an extreme drought in the U.S. West.
An air quality alert was issued through Saturday night for much of northwestern Washington because of smoke drifting in from blazes in the eastern part of the state and British Columbia, and the sky over Portland had an eerie orange glow.
Temperatures in Portland reached 103 F (39 C) on Thursday — 20 degrees above average. In Bellingham, Washington, the high hit 100 F (38 C) for the first time on record, while Seattle topped out in the 90s.
It’s the second major heat wave in less than a month in a region where many don’t have air conditioning.
A detailed scientific analysis found the June heat was virtually impossible without human-caused climate change. Meteorologist Jeff Masters with Yale Climate Connections said a similar study would need to be done with other heat waves, but there’s a general link between global warming and worsening heat waves.
“If you increase your baseline temperature, you greatly increase your odds of extreme heat events,” said Masters, co-founder of the private Weather Underground company.
July became Earth’s hottest month in 142 years of recordkeeping, with the globe averaging 62.07 F (16.73 C) that month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.
In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown has declared a state of emergency over the heat and activated an emergency operations center. City and county governments have opened cooling centers, extended public library hours and waived bus fare for those headed to cooling centers. A 24-hour statewide help line will direct callers to the nearest cooling shelter and offer safety tips.
Authorities scrambled to provide relief to the vulnerable this week, including low-income older people and those living outdoors. Oregon volunteers on Thursday handed out water, portable fans, popsicles and information about cooling shelters to homeless people in encampments on the outskirts of Portland.
Scott Zalitis, was shirtless and ate lime-green popsicles handed out by a nonprofit group Thursday. He told volunteers that the temperature at his campsite reached 105 F (41 C) the day before.
“It’s miserable. I can’t handle the heat no matter what. So, I mean, it’s hard to stand. Even in the shade it’s too hot,” Zalitis said. “You want to stay somewhere that’s cool, as cool as possible.”
The city closed all seven of its outdoor pools Thursday and Friday afternoon because of soaring temperatures. Before the closures, the line of people hoping to cool off stretched for more than a city block.
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Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed. Follow Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus.
